



/ 



AN ADD RESS 



DELIVERED BY 



GENERAL JOHN COBURN 



ON 



MEMORIAL DAY 



MAY 30, 1905 



AT THE 



MANUAL TRAINING HIGH SCHOOL 



INIANAPOUS, INDIANA 



INDIANAPOLIS 

JACOBS STATIONERY AND PRINTING COMPANY 

142 EAST MARKET STREET 

1905 



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AN ADDRESS 

DELIVERED BY 

GENERAL JOHN COBURN 



":^ ON 



MEMORIAL DAY 

MAY 30, 1905 

AT THE 

MANUAL TRAINING HIGH SCHOOL 
INIANAPOLIS, INDIANA 



My Young Friends : 

It is well that the teachers and scholars, of this High School should 
forget, for the hour, their studies and recall the history of their country, 
when the gloom of Civil War hung like the clouds of a vast hurricane 
over all of this fair land. 

It is well that they should go to the graves of the soldiers and cover 
them with flowers ; and thank God ; that their labors and sufferings 
were not in vain ; but helped to restore order and peace and perpet- 
uity to this the greatest Republic on earth. 

There the little headstone will tell the story of the man who offered 
his life to rescue his country when it stood on the brink of destruction. 

To the eye of the traveler as he wanders over the face of the earth, 
no work of the hand of man is more striking than the monuments 
erected to the memory of the illustrious dead. The pyramid, the 
column, the mausoleum, the tomb — may speak on enduring stone of 
the names and deeds of the departed. The image of the form and 
features preserved in marble or bronze, tells to the observer, age after 
age, and to all the generations of men, as they surge by in mighty 
procession, of the part played by the sacred dead on the theatre of life. 
From some of the greatest of these memorials erected to the memory 
of an event, or life, or sublime act, all traces of their purpose or their 
builders have been obliterated by the hand of time or of the unknown 



barbarians ; and the}' stand the silent tokens of lost memories sunk- 
forever in the waveless ocean of forg^etfulness. History, tradition or 
song- give no whisper of the momid-builders or the momid itself, or 
they, for whom it was piled up. The bones, the decaying pottery, 
the heap of earth tell no tale that we can understand and teach no 
lesson to the explorer. The king-, the hero, the benefactor, the war- 
rior, the law-g-iver, the sainted woman have returned to dust and ashes 
and to the midnight of oblivion. The toil and taxes of nations have 
been idly spent in the vain effort to perpetuate the memories of tyrants 
and benefactors alike. 

We now offer our fallen heroes, not bronze, or marble, or costly 
tombs, or tall obelisks, but the freshest and purest products of nature— 
the flowers of spring. We offer to them our fond remembrance of 
their deeds. We will come again at each returning spring, with 
trembling hand and tearful eyes; to deck the last resting place with the 
rose, the lily and the violet, with the fragile but eternal garments of 
sprmg. 

They who build only in stone may turn away and forget the dead : 
but they who bring the gifts of nature, keep alive their remembrance 
of the departed. They who come here yearly, will not soon forget 
the deeds, the sacrifices, the sufferings and the bright examples of 
those who sleep beneath these grassy hillocks. Wlien the father or 
mother, the brother or the sister, the widow or the orphan, the friend 
or neighbor come here to do this sacred duty, they breathe again the 
pure air that surrounds heroic deeds, and those who were too young 
to have shared in the mighty struggle, are lifted above the level of or- 
dinary life, witnessing these scenes. 

What did these men do ? Why were they slain ? Why did they 
offer their lives ? What was gained by the sacrifice ? What do men 
think of the departed ? These questions and the like must come up in 
the minds of the young, and the answers will implant in their bosoms 
an undying love and devotion to their country. So that, when the 
trying hour comes upon them ; they will not be found wanting ; when 
the political fabric shall be shaken by the earthquake of revolution, 
they will not shiver and quail; when the enemies of the country-assail 
it, they will not flee and hide from the shafts aimed for its destruction. 



As these have clone before, so hereafter, inspired by the same spirit, 
the future fathers and mothers will tell their sons to go and perish on 
the field of honor, rather than that their country shall die, the wife 
will, with trembling- heart ; give up the husband to the great cause ; 
fathers will forsake their children, and children their parents, that the 
Nation may not fail. When again the call goes forth and the flag is 
shaken out to the breeze, and the drums are beaten, nothing can re- 
strain the yoiuig and brave from the defense of our native land. And 
these are the sentiments we would inspire and hand down from century 
to century. 

The light of their example, gleaming above the glorious dead, will 
shine far down into the future and blaze along the pathway of our 
nation forever. Patriotic sacrifices, overlooked for a season, become 
grander, more impressive and more potent, as time rolls on. Civilized 
men will never let their memory be obliterated. 

^orty four years ago, these, the sacred dead — these men picked out 
by Providence to die for us all — were about their ordinary business : 
one after another they heard the call of their country for help ; they 
listened, then stopped their work and went. This one read the Pres- 
ident's proclamation ; that one the Governor's ; this one was wakened 
by the sound of drums; that one saw the gleaming and fluttering flag ; 
a speech stirred one ; an example stirred another ; the dispatches of 
defeat or victory kindled the fire of one ; a letter from the field awoke 
another as by the blast of a trumpet. Forth they went — the man that 
was plowing ; the boy that was dropping corn ; the reaper from the 
harvest ; the blacksmith from his anvil ; the shoemaker forgot his last; 
the boatman dropped his oar ; the clerk his pen ; the doctor forgot his 
patients ; the lawyer his cases ; the preacher his congregation ; leaving 
behind them their places to be vacant and silent forevermore. They 
went out, as lost sailors have gone down to their ships, to drift out on 
the vast tides of civil war and sink to the fathomless caverns of the 
lonesome ocean. This one died in the hospital of disease ; that one 
sank down by the roadside on the march ; another fell upon the skir- 
„ mish line ; this one languished and perished in a rebel prison ; and 
that one was smitten as the line-of-battle pressed on to victory ; this 
one at noon-day dashed down his life on the breast-works of the enemy, 



and that one fell in the lonely woods at the picket post ; when "stars 
were worshipping' around the midnight throne." 

Almost half a million able-bodied men, fit to bear arms, perished in 
this way. Their hallowed dust, scattered upon distant battle-fields, or 
where ships foundered in the silent waters, or gathered in National 
cemeteries; the people would crown this day, with flowers, and praises 
and blessing-s. 

Their toils and sufferings have not been in vain. The cause they 
espoused was successful ; the die has been cast ; the great American 
Nation is one, and is foremost on earth. Did man ever die for a 
nobler purpose ? What gratitude can ever repay the cost of such a 
sacrifice ? 

Of these men many were not permitted to see the light of final 
victory and peace ; they passed away during the battle and the hurri- 
cane, amid the harsh clamors of strife, under the shadows of doubt 
and sorrow. They fell before the last great martyr was smitten from 
the helm of state by the bullet of the assassin. It was not theirs to 
enjoy a restored union, a reconstructed Nation, or even a return in 
triumph to home and friends. Kindred martyrs for liberty, peace and 
union, the soldiers and their great patriotic leader and apostle, Lincoln, 
sleep together in the bosom of the country they saved from dismem- 
berment and annihilation. The impersishable record of their deeds 
will be read and repeated, while devotion to country and respect for 
free institutions, have a place in the human heart. 

But, at best, the fate of the martyr is a sad one. He who dies for 
religion, or he who dies for the truth, or for liberty, or for his country, 
or for his fellow-man, whether at the stake, or on the scaffold, on the 
battle-field, or on the bed of pain and torture, is entitled to the tears 
of every true hearted man and woman. At last his cup is filled with 
woe, and the God of mercy alone can rob it of its bitterness. The 
shadow of death blots out the sun and stars ; blots out the looks of 
kindness and love ; bolts out all but the hope and faith that the right 
and just thing will be done ; and that for others there will dawn a better 
day. I have heard the testimony from the whitening lips of dying 
soldiers, "It will be all right for you who live, and so it is all right 
for me." And the strong wish arose that we could utter a long, last 



loud farewell that would reach beyond the portals of death into the 
Silent Land, that would cheer the vanishing spirit after it had crossed 
the river and landed on the Eternal Shore. 

Jefferson Goodwin, of the 33d Indiana, pierced with a ball, said as 
he was borne off bleeding; "I am going-, but it is all right," and in a 
few moments, he was beyond the reach of pain. 

Sergeant Brown, of the 85th Indiana, with his life current stream- 
ing away, said, "Oh, Colonel, save me for my wife, but it is all right 
if I go." Colonel Gilbert of the 19th Michigan, mortally wounded at 
Resacca, said to me, "Farewell, I am going; write to my wife that I 
did my duty and died for my country." Sergeant Anderson Winter- 
rowd, of the 33d Indiana, on the field of Peachtree Creek, falling and 
dying, said : "Boys, the rebels have got me, but it is all right." 

What is all right ? Is such a death ; such agony, all right ? Oh, 
no. But the result will be all right. Victory will come and peace will 
come, and both will come to stay. And somebody will live to hail 
the mighty day, and ten thousand glad hearts, all over the land, will 
rejoice in the happy beams of that splendid dawn, and call down bless- 
ing on the memories of those who freely shed their blood that it 
might be. 

When we recall the scenes of the war, almost the first that arise to 
the view are those of sickness and death. Life out of doors, a bed on 
the ground, exposure to rain and wind, the wading of streams and 
mudholes, bring on their consequences, as surely as bullets and cannon 
shot. How soon the abject ignorance, in the soldiers, of the laws of 
health appears ! They commit suicide rapidly in their blindness. 
They seem, for a time, to be thoughtless children, playing with life 
and death as they do with soap bubbles. They know nothing of how 
to cook or eat, or what to eat ; how to make a bed or where to make 
it ; how to keep tents, clothes and camps clean ; how to come and go 
as rational beings in their new relations. All this must be learned in 
the hard school of experience ; so that death comes to the soldier not 
only on the battle field, but in the quiet camp, indeed more frequently 
there than elsewhere. 

Fevers, pneumonia, measles, rheumatism, neuralgia, consumption, 
diarrhaea and homesickness fill the hospitals and graves of the newly 



organized army. Careful early training', strength of constitution, 
prudence in conduct, common sense, patience, cleanliness and temper 
are all tested by the raw recruit. He must be constantly on the alert 
against many insidious foes which at home, he never looked for ; his 
usefulness ; his very life, depends upon the exercise of the best quali- 
ties of his manhood. And it is not in drilling or marching or fighting, 
but in much homelier things, in the matters I have named, which bear 
upon his personal comfort and health, and his success. 

He who had, through all, preserved his health, comfort and cheer- 
fulness had won more than half of the victory that was completed in 
battle. The Germans say healthiness is holiness, the old soldier will 
say, healthiness is victory. The Duke of Wellington, if possible, 
made his soldiers eat a good meal, wash themselves and put on a clean 
shirt before fighting. But it is not always possible. Our best soldiers 
found this out often ; and many men are in their graves simply because 
hardships multiplied upon them, till they could resist no longer. They 
suffered a martyrdom of hardships. 

Perhaps in nothing was the soldier more severely tried than in his 
patience. The army was a school of patience. The doing of the dull 
routine of duty ; drilling, marching, camp work, picketing, waiting 
and waiting, week after week and month after month. It was trying 
beyond measure to submit to petty and tyranical orders — to do what 
seemed to be useless — to be a post and stand still ; to be an ox, and 
pull and toil ; to be an ass, and bear burdens ; to be a child, and obey 
blindly and implicity ; to be a colt, and be broken and trained ; to be 
a lion, and caged ; to be half-fed, half-clothed; half-shod — this is to be 
a soldier. This is what these men endured and never murmured, but 
looked hopefully to the end. They were not eager for military glory; 
or trying to perform brilliant exploits. Their common sense measured 
military matters, and they would have been ashamed to have had it 
told of them that they were chasing "the bubble reputation into the 
cannon's mouth." They realized the truth, that war is a very serious 
business, and affords small opportunities to mere adventurers ; that it 
is the coldest and hardest matter-of-fact ; that he who realizes this 
fully is on the road to victory. 

General Sherman well said, before the committee on military affairs. 



"I must be a better quartermaster, commissary, inspector and adjutant 
than any man on my staff; to properly conduct a campaig^n." He 
very well knew that to meet such emerg-encies as arise ; forethought, 
calculation, calmness, the power of combination, quickness, correct- 
ness and firmess are essential. War is biisiness, in its highest sense, 
done under the greatest press^ire hi the most trying circumstances. The 
pass of Thermopylae, the bridg-e of Lodi, the plains of Waterloo, the 
hig^hts of Mission Ridg-e, the hills of Gettysburg-, can only tell of great 
catastrophes and victories ; but the preceeding preparation, who can 
recount that ? 

The rebellion was a surprise to us and to all Union men ; unprepared, 
undrilled, undiscliplined, almost unarmed, we were hurried ; officers and 
men alike ; into the vast conflict. The dangers, difhculties and dis- 
asters were aggravated, but out of it all, grew a most profitable and 
salutory experience. And before the war closed, we had better arms, 
better hospitals, better cavalry, infantry and artillery than ever before 
had marched out to battle. The soldiers put brains as well as bullets 
into their guns. They did that at Mission Ridge, in perhaps the most 
signal and complete victory of the war; which was never before per- 
formed. They, without orders, stormed the works of the enemy, 
climbing the heights and almost annihilated his army. 

To-day I have no time to recount the labors and achievements of 
those who died for their country. Could I, in a breath, summon those 
who are lying here in their graves, to utter in simple words their 
names, their regiments, their campaigns and the places of their death, 
in them the history of the war would live again before you. The great 
campaigns upon the Cumberland, the Tennessee, the Mississippi, the 
Potomac, the James, the Gulf, the Atlantic, each have their witnesses 
here. The picket line, the gunboat, the scouts all have their repre- 
sentatives at hand. Every arm of the service : the steady infantry, 
the wandering, scattering, and yet often tremendous and almost mir- 
aculous cavalry ; the sluggish and obstinate artilery ; the pioneers, of 
whom their astonished enemies declared "they made pontoons out of 
their dog-tents," together with the bummers of Sherman ; are here. 
Whatever there was of courage, or daring, or heroism, or devotion, 
or glory in the war, has been laid low here. Whatever there was of 



8 

toil, or sufferingf, or anguish, in hospital, on the march, on the field, 
or in prison is here in view. Whatever wounds, or disease, or star- 
vation, or homesickness (that starvation of the soul) can bring- to 
mortal lips has been pressed to these. Broken hearts, desolate homes, 
widowhood, orphanage, came too in the train of evils. Let us not 
forget these, the living, who have been smitten by the hand of war. 

We are led to ask, why was all this done ? What called for these 
sacrifices ? Wherefore did men so willingly give up all ? Why did 
the people, totally unused to war, suddenly become the most combat- 
tive and martial on the globe ? Was it for a mere abstraction, a mere 
political sentiment ? Or was it for a great purpose ? One moment's 
glance at the condition of affairs forty-three years ago reveals a vast 
republic; organized upon human slavery, as the corner-stone, defying 
the precepts of the Revolution and of all our great sages in govern- 
ment. A republic still greater in prospects and projects, aiming at the 
control of the West Indies, of the Gulf, and of Mexico, as well as the 
southern and western parts of our own country. Aggressive, insolent; 
grasping ; inflamed with a desire to propagate slavery : resolved to 
control the central regions of this Western Hemisphere. Had this 
great central slave republic been allowed to live undisturbed, where 
would we have been to-day ? What flag would have been ours ? 
What law ? What policy ? What destiny ? Would we have become 
an independent North Western Confederacy ? Would we have held 
on to our Eastern and Northern brethren, or would we have gravitated 
to the South ? As we now stand, far oflf the brink of the gulf, and 
look backward into it again ; we can see the frightful possibilities that 
surrounded us then. 

Another glance on the other hand reveals the friends of the old Re- 
public standing by all its institutions and all its compromises, and see- 
ing in them the National safety, power and peace : inspired with the 
idea of unity as well as liberty, well convinced that dismemberment, 
peaceful though it might be, would be but the beginning of trouble ; 
of civil wars ; of the long train of calamities that follow them ; of 
National dishonor and ultimate ruin. The true friends of the country 
could see a grand future in reserve, the rebellion broken, order re- 



stored, peace established, prosperity universal, slavery annihilated, 
labor made respectable, manhood vindicated. 

To put down this slave-holding- confederacy, to blot forever the ideas 
of disunion and secession, to establish on firmer foundations this great 
Republic, these men went forth joyfully to meet the worst. 

Where now is the empire of slavery, the great Central Continental 
Republic ? Where now the grand dreams of Calhoun, Davis, Toombs, 
Stephens and Breckenridge ? Where is the mighty corner-stone that 
was to uphold all ? Gone forever from the face of the earth. Gone 
like the shadows of night before the rising sun. The whole earth, the 
whole future of man contains no possibility, amid all the range of 
chances, for their existence. Never more will these mighty battles be 
fought again ; they were decisive ; they were final ; there is no appeal. 

And upon the ruins of that vast conspiracy behold now standing a 
free and united nation, reconstructed, absolved from all compromises 
with wrong, boldly looking all men and all ages in the face and chal- 
lenging a parallel. 

Rest then, I say to the old soldiers, from your labors, brave men. 
Earth and time can find no brighter achievements than your own. 
And ye living crown their places of repose with flowers and fill the air 
with the music of their praises. Let youths and maidens, on each re- 
turning spring, gather for them natures choicest offerings ; let ripened 
manhood and womanhood cease their toils and bend with tender de- 
votion at these shrines ; and let white-haired age assemble here and 
give testimony to the righteousness of the only idolatry the Supreme 
Being does not condemn. 

Let it never be forgotten, that the cause in which these men died is 
the cause of the human race ; that they have aided in rescuing our 
Nation from imminent destruction, and have succeeded in placing her 
where supremacy is assured ; that they frightened Napoleon from 
Mexico, and have given spirit and power to the present Republic. 
Let it never be forgotton that the last refuge for the down-trodden 
victims of monarchical oppression, has been rescued and delivered by 
these men in perpetuity for their benefit ; and that they have this day 
an asylum here ; because the Union soldier laid down his life for his 
country and her free institutions. Let it not be forgotten, that the 



lO 

sons of old Europe, together with the sons of young America, He 
mingfHng their dust side by side ; fallen in a common cause, for hu- 
manity and the future, and that here, too, the dusky sons of Africa 
have found a glorious grave. There let them rest forever, shaded by 
the flag of a free people ; honored, blest by every succeeding generation. 

Taught by their example, men in distant climes and in long future 
ages will seize the sword and carve out their freedom. The labor 
they have performed shall bear fruit not only in this land but in all 
latitudes beneath the sun, among all races of men. Donelson and 
Shiloh, Gettysburg and Stone River, Cedar Creek and Five Forks 
shall out live the fame of Marathon and Platea, and be household 
words when the mosses of many ages shall garland the graves we dec- 
orate to-day. Filled with the inspiration that blazed in the souls of 
our voluntsers, the Englishman will yet break the scepter of Alfred 
into fragments ; the Frenchman will be encouraged to sustain the great 
Republic modelled after our own ; the German, the Russian, the Italian 
and Spaniard will, taking inspiration from our success ; replace their 
strong monarchies, with a still stronger government ; the consent of a 
free people, founded upon equal rights. 

But not in the greatest measure by the inspiration of example has 
the work of these men been eflfectual. The present prosperity of our 
Republic ; the increase of population ; the growth of the territories ; 
the progress of public improvements; the intellectual and moral de- 
velopement of the people; are all the natural ofif-spring of this great 
struggle. New emergencies seem to have developed new energies and 
displayed new resources in our Nation. The soldier came back from 
the war a better mechanic and man of business than he went away ; 
the professional man drew a deeper and stronger purpose from his ex- 
perience; the good citizen at home became a more earnest man. Those 
who fell seemed to have bequeathed to the survivors a double portion 
of their spirit. The Nation was not exhausted, was hardly weary after 
the long struggle. The homely virtues of patience, obedience, order 
and watchfulness, cultivated and made vigorous, gave manly independ- 
ence and solid strength to many thousands of negetive characters. 
Forty-three years have witnessed a reformation and reconstruction as 
well as revolution. ''Died in a Holy Cause^' is written, not only on 



IT 

these tombstones, but on all the temples of learning, business, justice 
and relig^ion. These are the chief monuments. 

No wreath of flowers, no breath of spring, no memorial stone can 
sanctify the cause that would tear down a good government; or the 
wickedness, that would build up a vast scheme of oppression. There 
is no resurrection or future for that. And yet the valor and devotion 
of those who suffered or perished in aid of Rebellion, extort from 
every candid soul a tribu^ of respect. They, too, exhibited splendid 
examples of patience, self-sacrifice, courage and manliness. They only 
verified the presumption in favor of American pluck, energy, vigor 
and gallantry. 

A few men, perhaps twenty, in the Union army, achieved what is 
called military glory ! A million or more only had the satisfaction of 
a sense of duty performed. Almost a million are silent in the tomb; 
sad and helpless witnesses of the havoc of treason. In such a presence 
how empty is military glory. Turning from it, we point to these liv- 
ing and dead soldiers — they wear no laurels — they won no fame — they 
make no boast. 

We look hopefully to the future, believing that the blood that was 
spilled, the scalding tears that were shed, and all the agony and sorrow 
that overwelhmed the people, will purify and refine them, 

We look to the future over these graves, and over all the me- 
mentoes of death, and see the innumberable company of coming gen 
erations. There is no smoke of cannon there; no shriek of shell; no 
fluttering flag: no cheer of charging men; no gleam of bayonets ; no 
rush of horsemen; no bleeding soldier. It is a happy, free, united 
host, obedient to the law; doing justice; helping the weak; loving mercy. 



